The Good Son - 16. Chapter 16: Sleeping Beauty

“What is it you want to show me?” Arty asked Daniel, letting the teen string him along to the kitchen. The younger brunette looked back at Arty and smiled.

“It’s a surprise,” he replied. Arty looked away, a little uncomfortable. Jack was at work and Henry was just… gone; it left Arty home alone with the kids, something that he wasn’t too particularly fond of since Daniel’s kissing stunt. And because he seemed to be getting a little… Arty couldn’t actually think of a word for it. Aside from that trouble, Geil was having more nightmares.

Once inside the kitchen, it became apparent that an afternoon meal had been made: glasses of water and what looked to be Shepherd’s Pie. Arty looked at Daniel.

“You cooked?” he asked, amazed at the quality. Daniel gave a single shouldered shrug, smiling at Arty. He motioned to the plates that sat together at the dining table.

“Eat with me? I have something to talk with you about.”

Arty pressed his lips together, reluctant. “...Okay.” He walked to the table and sat, watching as Daniel took the other seat. The teen put an elbow on the table and leaned forward, to speak.

“Arty, why do you like Jack so much?”

Arty closed his eyes, sighing. Then he brushed his hair from his face and grabbed his glass of water, taking a drink from it. “I just do. It’s what happens when you like someone, you just… like them,” he said.

“You said you first met him when you were sixteen- that’s too young an age to fall in love with someone.”

“...Daniel, what’s wrong?” Arty looked at the teen, eyebrows knit together. “Where’s all of this coming from?”

Daniel looked away from Arty. He picked up his own glass and drank from it, making Arty drink his own unconsciously. When Daniel put his glass back down, he crossed his legs under the table.

“You’re right. I’m sorry for confusing you. Let’s eat, hm?” He gave Arty a smile. The man watched Daniel with suspicious eyes before he glanced away and nodded. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he wasn’t too fond of the thought to dwell on it.

“...Alright.” Picking up his fork, Arty started eating. The potatoes were cooked perfectly, with a nice outer layer of crust. Daniel watched the other brunette for a long moment before taking up his own fork and beginning to eat, his silverware hitting the glass plate a little hard. Arty glanced back at him while chewing his bite.

There was something wrong with Daniel. It was time to pry it out of him. Just when Arty decided to speak, a wave of vertigo washed over him and he brought a hand up to his head to try and stop the dizziness. He grabbed his water, taking a drink to refresh himself, but it didn’t seem to help.

Eyebrows furrowed in confusion, Arty looked at Daniel. “Hey... did you-” his grip on his cup loosened and he accidentally spilled the water on himself while catching the glass. Daniel got out from his chair to come over, catching the man as he fell trying to get out of his seat.

“What- wh...” Arty tried to stand on his own feet but his body felt heavy; he couldn’t get out of Daniel’s arms. “Daniel, did you-”

“Hush, Arty, you’ll stress yourself,” Daniel said softly into Arty’s ear. Arty looked at him, the teen’s face growing blurry in his sight.

It hit him. He felt these effects before with Henry.

He had been drugged.

“Daniel, what did you do to me,” he cried lightly, trying harder to get away from the teen. Daniel held him tight, though. “Just take me to bed,” Arty whispered, his eyes growing heavy and his body becoming uncooperative. Daniel shook his head, bringing Arty to lay the man down on the kitchen floor.

Arty was crying, gripping Daniel’s shirt loosely to try and push him away. “Dan… Daniel, please,” he breathed, words slurring. Daniel leaned over him, looking at the man’s hooded blue eyes.

“You’re not fair, Arty. That’s all it is.”

Arty cried. His hand slipped from Daniel’s shirt as he started losing function of his body, but he managed to roll onto his side beneath the teenager, to try and crawl away. It was to no avail. What small distance he managed to make away from Daniel, he was dragged back. He cried into the floor, a tear rolling over the bridge of his nose.

“I want to say it was only two pills, but I’d be lying to you. It’s quick to act now, isn’t it?” Daniel spoke to Arty, but the man seemed to be falling asleep, his light cries growing quieter. The teen grabbed Arty’s shoulder and flipped him onto his back to look at his pale face. He clicked his tongue. “I didn’t want to use them, but you’re very stubborn, you are. ...Can you hear me, Arty?”

Arty whispered something so quiet and incoherent that Daniel just shook his head at the man.

“You’re just not fair.”

Getting up from Arty, Daniel stepped to the table and picked up their dishes, taking the plates to scrape into the trash and taking the water to pour into the sink drain. Then he walked to the counter, where he had his Polaroid sitting. Picking it up, he walked back over to Arty and knelt beside the man, setting the camera on the floor so that he could start stripping him.

Arty tried pushing Daniel’s arm away as the teen grabbed his shirt, but Daniel just took Arty’s wrist and brought his arm back to his side.

“Just go to sleep, there’s no need to worry,” the teen spoke. He let go of Arty’s wrist and reached out to wipe the man’s tears away, dragging the thumb across his wet cheeks. It only took a minute for Arty’s breathing to slow, showing that he had slipped into unconsciousness.

Reaching down to grab Arty’s shirt again, Daniel pulled it up the man’s chest to show what pale flesh lay underneath. The teen tried containing himself, but after a moment of looking at Arty’s bare, light skin of purity, he gave in and reached out to ghost his fingers over Arty’s jutting ribs. He quickly pulled his hand away so that he wouldn’t get distracted, and he then started to unbutton Arty’s jeans.

Pulling the button open and sliding the zipper down, Daniel gripped the waist band and pulled the jeans down Arty’s thighs.

“Daddy,” Daniel heard Geil’s voice say. The teen looked over at the kitchen’s archway, where Geil stood. His hair was cut short so that it wouldn’t look like a mess, but he had been having nightmares since the basement event that left his eyes wide and irritated. His wide eyes looked from Daniel to Arty, and then back to Daniel.

Daniel brought a finger up to his lips, watching the child. “Shh.”

Geil took in a quick breath, watching Daniel like he were the Boogeyman. The child turned on his heel and rushed away from the kitchen, a sob of terror making it into Daniel’s ears as the child ran away. Daniel turned his attention back to Arty and continued with the man’s clothes, gripping the waistband of Arty’s boxer briefs and pulling them down, too.

Smiling softly at his handiwork, Daniel looked at Arty’s face. He leaned over Arty’s body to caress a hand over the man’s torso, feeling his soft waist and bringing his face down to press a light kiss to Arty’s chest. Then he sat back up and grabbed the Polaroid, backing away so that he were at a good angle, before taking a picture of the man’s flesh.

After finishing with Arty, Daniel walked to the art room and shut himself inside, taking the pictures to his work in progress.

l.l

Arty woke up in bed.

He felt sick to his stomach and his nerves were so shot that he couldn’t control his breathing. He climbed out of bed despite his body feeling wrong, and left the bedroom to find Jack.

“Jack!” he called, his voice coming out too timid for his comfort. He fell against the hallway wall, his balance off. It made the feeling of despair inside of him skyrocket, and his eyes filled with tears, blurring his vision. “Jack! Jack!” he cried for the man. Pushing off of the wall, he stumbled to the staircase and leaned on the railing for support while he made his way down the steps. He paused to wipe his eyes, crying. Opening them again, he saw Jack coming up the stairs and sobbed, dropping to sit on one of the steps.

Jack came over and wrapped his arms around Arty, but the voice that spoke wasn’t his.

“What’s wrong, Arty?” Henry asked, looking Arty over while holding him. The brunette shook his head and pushed Henry off of him, dismayed.

“Don’t touch me!” he cried when he realized that it wasn’t Jack, but his brother. Henry gave Arty a look, genuinely confused.

“What happened? What’s wrong?” He reached out to try and help Arty up, but the brunette slapped his hand away and pulled himself up by the stair’s railing.

“Don’t touch me! I’m tired of being used...” he sobbed, leaning over the railing and putting a hand over his face. Henry breathed through his nose, watching him.

“...Jack’s still at work, they needed him to stay for a case. I won’t touch you or anything, just- tell me what’s wrong before you hurt yourself or something,” he said. Arty shook his head again, wiping his eyes and crying. Henry just waited, watching Arty closely to make sure that he wouldn’t accidentally fall over the railing. Eventually, Arty spoke up.

“H-he drugged me,” he sobbed. Henry gave him a look.

“Who? When?”

“Daniel...”

Henry twisted his lips. “...Are you sure it wasn’t a dream-”

“I’m not making this up!” Arty yelled at Henry, turning to look at the blonde. Henry held up his hands defensively.

“Okay, I’m sorry. Just… Are you-”

“I know when someone fucks with me!”

“Did he rape you?”

“I don’t know!”

“Okay, let’s get off the staircase.” Henry put an arm around Arty’s shoulders to help him downstairs. Arty let him walk him, wiping his damp face of tears.

Once on the first floor, Arty grabbed Henry and pulled him along to the kitchen.

“H-he used my ambien pills,” he said, biting his lip to stop crying. Henry looked at him.

“Well, what are you taking me in here for?”

“He cooked food and put the pills in it.” Arty gave a shaky breath and walked to the trashcan to look inside. It had been recently dumped, a new trash bag inside.

“Alright, so what are we doing now?”

“Finding where the fucking food went!” Arty snapped at Henry, glaring at the man. Henry sighed and held up a hand.

“Okay, sorry.” He walked to the fridge, opening it to look inside. It just had fresh produce and some leftovers, nothing special. He looked back at Arty, who was touching himself to see if he had any damage.

“...Why don’t we just call Jack?” Henry asked. Arty gave a heavy sigh, not even bothering to look at Henry this time.

“Because he’s at work, Henry.”

“Then call the police.”

“I can’t! I don’t want any involvement with them, okay? Why do you think I let you off all of the time?”

Henry shut the fridge door and crossed his arms. “So you don’t want Jack to know, then?” he asked simply. Arty looked at him, eyes narrowed.

“No.”

Henry tossed a hand up. “Then what do you want me to do?”

“Just… Can you keep an eye on Daniel?”

l.l

“You’re picking us up, too?” Daniel asked Henry, watching the man cautiously. Henry nodded, carrying Geil to the car.

“Arty’s not feeling well, I’ll take you guys for a while.”

Daniel watched as Henry put Geil in his car, buckling him in. Then the man got in the driver’s seat and looked at Daniel.

“Come on,” he said. Daniel glanced back at the front door of the house before walking to the car, getting in the passenger’s seat. The teen watched the road ahead as they drove to school, knowing the real reason why Arty was staying home, but still angry that he was.

When he was dropped off at school, he thoroughly avoided Joe, because he was still angry at him ever since the funeral. And Laura was just an annoying nuisance, so he made sure to keep his distance from her, too.

Just as Daniel had suspected, Kaiden wasn’t through with him, either. He tripped Daniel in the hallway, the teen walking by to get to lunch and falling to his knees. Kaiden and his friends laughed.

Although he was working his way up to Morrison’s status to a lot of kids, Daniel still felt that he was still just the third wheel, trying to step into first place. It all felt petty to Daniel.

The teen got up and dusted his pants before continuing to the cafeteria, where he sat at a different table from Laura and Joe, so that they wouldn’t see him. Thinking about it now, he actually wouldn’t be able to avoid Joe in art class. Unless he outright told the noirette to leave him alone, but that was even under question because of Joe’s persistence.

At home, Henry was searching Daniel’s room.

He stood over the teen’s desk, sifting through papers and flipping through books to find anything hidden. One piece of paper had multiple anatomical studies of eyeballs, the lashes long and elegant. If he didn’t know any better, Henry would think it looked like Arty’s eye.

Setting the papers down again, he breathed through his nose.

“Where’s all the stuff...” he looked around the room, trying to think of anywhere that Daniel would hide anything.

There weren’t many places to hide things, and that’s what made it hard to find anything. You had to look harder.

“Okay,” he walked to the closet, where he pulled the door open to look inside.

Clothes hung in chromatical order, neatly. The whole closet looked a little neat for being a walk-in, a single pair of shoes sitting at the side. Daniel didn’t really have too much stuff, apparently.

Looking up in the closet, he saw a thermos sitting upside down. Reaching up, he grabbed it and pulled it down, looking at it. It had Arty’s name on it, so Henry pulled out his cellphone to take a picture before putting it back. Then he walked to Daniel’s bed, where he started sifting through the teen’s blankets and looking under his pillow.

Nothing.

He scratched his neck, looking around the room again. ...Maybe there was just nothing there. He left the bedroom and turned down the hall, pausing at the art room. He gripped the doorknob and turned it to open the door.

Lunch wasn’t as quiet as Daniel expected it to be. No, instead, one of Kaiden’s friends poured milk over the teen’s head from behind. Daniel didn’t even turn around to look. He just sat still and let the cold drink drip down from his hair to his shoulders. The teen committing the act paused and looked to the side, where Kaiden sat with the rest of their friends at a table. He was awkward- Daniel clearly wasn’t displaying whatever emotion they wanted him to. Instead, he stood up and walked out of the cafeteria, to get a shower and change of clothes from the locker room.

Henry sifted through his older brother’s paintings, the canvases clacking against eachother as he flipped through them. He knew for a fact that Daniel spent a lot of time in here, so there must be something.

He left that stack of paintings and went to another, one with more. He peeked at the paintings from the front of the pile to the back, and he finally found something. He grabbed a dark colored canvas and pulled it from the pile, taking it to the easel to set it up for viewing.

It was Arty. The paint was still wet and it looked… terrible. The background was a warped black hole of dark tones. Pinned to the bottom of the canvas were Polaroid pictures, for references. A sickly bruise on someone’s neck, pictures of flesh that were most likely Arty’s; a slim stomach, bare hip bones, slightly parted, pink lips, closed eyes with visible tear streaks, a loose hand with a pale line across the ring finger- did Daniel take Arty’s wedding band?

The only good thing about the painting was Arty, but even he was ruined. His face looked elegant, eyes closed like he were an angel, but he was naked. His body was covered in dark, realistic bruises. His bottom lip was split open and blood poured out down his chin, dripping into his hands that were cupped in front of him- spilling over with a dark puddle of blood. He looked like some kind of ritualistic god. Despite looking so abused and… demented.

His painted left hand lacked his wedding ring, but he kept his locket around his neck, dangling over his collarbones and chest. It looked like one of his collarbones were broken, the bone beneath his skin misaligned.

When Henry touched the canvas, it was still very wet, the paint coming off onto his finger.

“What the hell, Daniel?”

Daniel stood naked in front of the locker room’s trashcan, looking at his gym clothes that he had planned on changing into. Apparently, Kaiden and his friends dumped the clothes in the trash ahead of time. There was a smoothie dumped in the trash over them.

Walking back to his original clothes, he trashed his milk spilt shirt and pulled his boxers and pants back on. He’d just have to do gym class with jeans on, then.

Putting his coat on, he zipped it up to cover his bare torso and left the room to go to science.

Science went alright, but Daniel had to sit out in gym; Coach Long didn’t want him on the court in his street clothes, and basketball season was already over, so there wasn’t any point in having to attend. Said the coach.

Sitting in the bleachers, Daniel had zoned out of watching his class play ball, twisting Arty’s wedding band in his fingers.

He was still dismayed about Arty rejecting him. Why? He knew he was good looking; all the girls talked about his face and eyes, and his body. What wasn’t good enough for Arty? Was it Jack? Did he need to get Jack out of the picture?

There was a sudden, sharp pain in his nose and he was brought back to gym class. Hot fluid dripped quickly across his lips and down his chin- he brought a hand up to catch the blood so that it wouldn’t drip onto his clothes. Putting the ring into his pocket with his other hand, he stood up from the bleachers and looked at his class. A few students were already running over from the court, climbing into the bleachers to help him.

“You okay Daniel?” Coach Long called to him, hands cupped around his mouth to make him louder. Daniel swallowed a mouth full of blood and grimaced at the metallic taste.

“Fuck,” the teen muttered to himself, tilting his head up to stop the blood flow that was making a mess in his hands. A few kids he didn’t know the names of came over, with Joe. It wasn’t a relief.

“Why didn’t you catch the ball?” One of the boys asked, like Daniel were stupid. He wasn’t stupid, he just wasn’t paying attention.

“Why didn’t you catch it, arsehole,” Daniel retaliated, glaring at the boy. The other teen gawked. One of the others that came grabbed the ball that hit Daniel, sitting under the bleacher, and threw it back into the court; another boy catching it. Joe grabbed Daniel.

“Come on, you need to see the nurse,” he said. Daniel turned his glare to the noirette.

“I don’t need anything.” His voice came out slurred because of the blood in his mouth and nose. Coach seemed to disagree, despite not hearing any of the conversation.

“Go on and see the nurse, Daniel! I’ll give Andrew a hall-pass for you!”

Daniel groaned, watching the kid who threw the ball back head down the bleachers to go to the coach, probably Andrew. Joe pulled Daniel down the bleachers after Andrew, taking him to the bathroom while the latter got the pass.

Leaving Daniel at the sink, Joe went to a stall to grab some toilet paper before coming back and holding the wad against the brunette’s gushing nose. With his other hand, he turned the sink on and Daniel started washing his hands.

“Kaiden threw the ball at you- I thought you’d catch it,” Joe said. Daniel looked at him through narrowed eyes.

“I don’t want you to talk to me,” he said and shut the water off, waving his hands to dry them some before reaching up to take the toilet paper from Joe and hold it himself. Joe crossed his arms.

“Why? What’s wrong now?”

“He’d be dead by now if you held up your fucking end of the bargain.” Daniel leaned against the sink, closing his eyes because of a headache that was setting in. Joe shook his head.

“Okay, what did he do now?”

“What hasn’t he done? He’s blackmailed me, pestered me all day- thrown a ball at my face!”

“What would he have to blackmail you for, Daniel? He’s not that smart of a guy.”

Daniel gave Joe a dirty look. “I don’t expect you to understand anything. But I do expect you to get rid of him. As promised. Or you can expect me to leave you like you left your friends, hm?”

Andrew came into the bathroom, a blond haired boy with freckles. He motioned to the two.

“I’ve got the hall pass, we can go now.”

Walking to the nurse’s office was quiet. Andrew led the way as he was told and Joe walked behind Daniel to help him if anything happened. It didn’t look like Joe and Andrew were well acquainted, the latter was probably a good kid who did what he was supposed to. That most likely meant not talking to Morrison and his cronies.

At the office, there was a girl getting some tampons and signing out on a sheet. Andrew told the nurse what Daniel was in for while the brunette signed in on the sheet, the girl watching him curiously before leaving.

“Alright, what’s wrong?” the nurse asked while walking over. “You got hit by a ball?”

Daniel shrugged a shoulder, glancing at her. “Yes, I suppose that’s right.”

“It’s bleeding a lot though,” Andrew said. Joe gave him an annoyed look. Was he jealous?

“Hm, okay- let me have a look.” The nurse had Daniel sit in a chair and he moved the tissue from his nose, which had gotten drenched. Once it was gone, more blood came. Andrew went to grab some tissues from a tissue box, but Joe beat him. The nurse let them put the tissues to Daniel’s nose again while she walked to a shelf, where she grabbed a spray.

“Alright, sit forward and pinch your nose for a few minutes; if that doesn’t help then we’ll go ahead and use a decongestive spray,” she said. Daniel groaned and pinched his nose, closing his eyes. Joe got a cleaning wipe from the nurse and started cleaning the teen’s face, holding the tissues at his side in case he’d need to use them again. Andrew looked at the nurse.

“Do you need us here, or should we go back to class?”

“If anyone has to stay, it can be Andrew,” Daniel said blatantly. Joe rolled his eyes. The nurse nodded.

“Yeah, one of you can stay- Joe, you should get on back to class,” she said. Joe hadn’t expected that and looked at her.

“What? But-”

“We both know you can’t be missing class. Go on, Joel.”

Joe looked at Daniel again before tossing the tissues in the trash and leaving. Daniel could tell he was upset with him, but he didn’t care. At least, it was his own fault.

“Keep your nose pinched for a few minutes and then we’ll see if it stops the bleeding. I’m gonna step out for a minute but I’ll be back,” the nurse said and left after Andrew told her he’d watch Daniel. Now that the two were alone, it was silent. Andrew looked at all of the stuff in the room and Daniel leaned forward on his knees, eyes closed and pinching his nose shut, breathing through his mouth.

“Do you want some water?” Andrew asked, glancing at Daniel. The other teen gave a light nod. Walking to the small sink in the room, Andrew grabbed a paper rinsing cup and filled it to bring back to Daniel, who peeked his eyes open to look. He felt like shit. He took the cup and put the water into his mouth to swish around before spitting it back inside. It was red with blood and spit, and Andrew took it to dump and throw away. Daniel was glad to have the blood out of his mouth.

“Hey, why do you hang out with Joe?” the blonde asked. Daniel looked at him.

“I haven’t been, have I?”

“I mean like, every other day.”

“Because I just do.”

“Well, he’s not really that good of a person, is he? I mean, there are a lot of other kids who want to be your friends.”

“Maybe I don’t want friends,” Daniel looked at the door when it opened and the nurse came back in.

“Okay, you can let go of your nose and we’ll see if it’s stopped,” she said as she stepped inside. Daniel let go and some blood dribbled out, but not as much as earlier. The nurse came over with the spray.

“I’m gonna use this anyway, to help with the mucus and such, okay? After I spray, hold it for another ten minutes. I don’t want you blowing your nose or anything.”

“Alright.”

The nurse used the spray and Daniel pinched his nose again. “I also have a headache,” he said to her. She gave him some Ibuprofen pills that he could take after he was done with his nose.

When all of that was done, Andrew took Daniel to his next class, art, and then headed on. Joe was sitting in his seat beside Daniel’s, but the latter went off to take another. It was sort of a mistake, because it was beside two girls who wanted to talk to him.

“Hi, Daniel- why are you over here?” one asked with a shy smile, her cheeks pink. The other was more outgoing.

“What happened to you? Did you get hit?” she asked. Daniel nodded, because he couldn’t just ignore them and be an asshole like he wanted to.

His phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out, looking at the girls. “Excuse me,” he said, something about being polite making the first girl grab her friend’s arm with an excited squeal. Flipping open the phone, Daniel saw that it said 1 NEW MESSAGE. It said it was from Joe, so Daniel glanced over, but the noirette teen was just sitting slumped in his seat on his phone.

Daniel opened the message to read it.

JOE: I’ll do it.

l.l

Henry was waiting outside for Daniel, standing beside the car. As the teen made his way over, he started to see that Henry looked upset.

“Get in,” the man said. Daniel watched him for a moment before walking around the car and getting inside. Looking in the backseat, Geil was asleep. Henry got in.

He pulled out of the parkway onto the road and started driving, where he was quiet for a while before looking at Daniel and speaking up.

“What did you do to Arty?”

Daniel looked at him, quirking an eyebrow.

“I didn’t do anything.”

“I found the pictures and the painting- god Daniel, what the hell is that stuff?”

Daniel didn’t say anything, looking ahead at the road. He sucked his teeth.

“We’re calling the state and they’re going to take you back. You have problems, Daniel.”

Daniel looked at Henry, glaring. “And what of Arty, hm? Leave him alone with you? If I told Jack of what you do with his husband, he’d disown you- you’d be the big shame of the family,” he said bitterly, catching Henry’s attention. The man looked at him.

“What are you talking about?”

“I’ve heard you before, idiot. “Halloween and twice more”. You must think you’re so smart, but Arty is just too kind to do anything- he lets you take advantage of him!”

“Shut up! You’re going away, that’s final!”

“Have you even told anyone yet? Are you just waiting to play the good guy?”

Henry didn’t reply, and Daniel associated that with Henry being the only one to know. He hadn’t told Arty or Jack about what he’d found yet.

“I don’t know what Arty could ever see in you, but I’ll just make sure he doesn’t,” Daniel reached across Henry to unbuckle the man’s seat belt, and then he grabbed the steering wheel and swerved the car just as a truck drove towards them.